The Title of the book is Maus: Art Spiegelman Wrote the story. The reasons I Chose this particular book was because I read it last year and actually liked even though it was assigned. It was an easy read and I figured why not read something that I have read before and liked quite a bit.
Cover of Maus
Maus' genres:
This book fits into the genres of Graphic Novel, Biography, and Young Adult. It fits into the graphic novel genre because it was basically a very long comic book and that is what it was. There were drawings with captions all over the entire book. This gave it the position of being in the category of graphic novel. This book fits into the category of young adult as well as graphic novel. This is because most young adults learn about the holocaust around that time in their life and most teachers assign this to their students to learn about graphic novels at this time in their life. Another reason it fits into young adult is because it is pretty much a longer version of a comic book and most young adults do not mind reading comic books. This is a biography because Spiegelman was writing his fathers story of how he lived through the Holocaust. His father lived through camps and hiding from the Nazis for years. He told us about the fact that his father would dress and wear religious apparel of different religions to blend and not get caught by Nazis. He wrote about his fathers relationships and even put things in the book that his father told him not to. These are the genres of Maus.
Summary of plot:
The plot was Spiegelman’s father surviving the Holocaust. His father’s story was the book and whatever happened to his father was in the book. It Started with them living in a small hidden room underneath a chest nailed to the ground. And they move around hoping not to get caught and had them wearing masks of other animals to represent them blending in by wearing other religions apparel. His relationships were in here and his wife. He eventually was in a camp but escaped; this was the climax of the story. He had a child who eventually would write this book. Throughout the book they kept coming back to present time and talked about what they said together while his father was telling the story.
Character discussion:
There are three characters that will be talked about; Vladek, Anja, Mala. Vladek is the main character that the story revolves around. This is what he did to survive the Holocaust. Vladek was the father of Art and was the husband of Anja until she committed suicide, which is when he later married Mala. All three of these characters were illustrated as mice because in the book mice were the representatives for Jewish people; other animals represented different people. Cats were the Nazis and pigs were polish but there were more animals in the story.
Vladek being the central character in this story was involved in everything. He was married twice, had two kids, and took care of everyone of them. His first wife was Anja who was the mother (Vladek was the father) of Art and Richieu. Vladek actually gave up Richieu to hide him for his own safety. “We had to give Richieu to hide a year later.” Richieu died leaving Vladek in charge of Art when Anja committed Suicide. Vladek was always looking for a place to stay and hide for his family. They stayed in a barn and in a tiny room with several people in it. Vladek would even walk around with a “pig mask” (pg. 64) on to make himself look polish instead of Jewish. His family was the most important thing to him. He would then get captured and put in a camp where he would have to work and live in a tent where it snowed all of the time (pg. 61). He got captured and put there after he went into the army
Anja was Vladek’s first wife and was the mother of Richieu and Art. Richieu ended up dying and Anja killed herself.
Mala was Vladek’s second wife. He fought with her many times. One time in the book they fought over something completely pointless. This shows that Vladek liked Anja much more than Mala.
The Nazi soldiers played such a huge role in this book; there wouldn’t have been any of this without them. They started just by being there and making every Jewish person be careful of where they go what they do and what they look like. They were the ones that raided Vladek’s house while they were hiding under the chest with the fake bottom, which led to a hidden room. They were the ones that took Vladek to the camp. On page 49 they said, “Give me your gun.” This was the beginning of his stay in a camp. They would gas people just because they were mice. (Jews or other cultures) They are the people that tortured and did everything to the Jewish people and many other cultures. These people would just be following commands to. It was not like they wanted to or would have done those things to people if they were not part of the Nazi army. Even though they just did these things on command they still played the role of the bad guy. Everybody hates the bad guy.
Big Ideas:
The main idea of this book is the Holocaust and what people had to go through to survive the Holocaust. It showed what people did to hide and live. They would dress like other people or in the book they would wear masks of other animals that represented people during the Holocaust. Pigs being Polish. Another big idea was that there was an obvious hierarchy to the way Spiegleman presented the animals. Cats obviously being the highest of the hierarchy. The cats were the Nazis while the mice were the Jewish people. The Mice were the bottoms with the common idea that cats chase mice. Frogs and pigs were in the middle with a central location in the hierarchy. Dogs were also in the middle. Another idea was that certain things meant certainly that there would be bad things to come. A Swastika was one of those things. On page 125 the paths that Vladek and his friend were walking on formed a Swastika. This was built into the book and took someone pointing it out to me to see it. Another time when the Swastika was in the book was when the train was taking Vladek in to the camp and it was on a very large flag right outside of the train.
Major Conflict:
The Major conflict in this book was the Holocaust. Without the Holocaust this book would not have been written. The whole conflict with this concept was the fact that Jews and other cultures and races were murdered for no apparent reason. Nazis would just kill them. During the Holocaust people would get captured (Vladek was one of those people) during war and put into camps where they wouldn’t be fed and they would be worked to the point where they died and if they did not die they would be killed. The fact that people would do things like that reflects badly on them and really started this whole thing. Without them there would not be a conflict. If it was just Hitler there would not have been a holocaust and he probably would have ended up in jail, which would have changed the course of time. There would be more Jewish people across the world today and the world would be even more over populated. But back to the actual situations of the holocaust. People were beaten and tortured and starved in many more ways than people today could imagine. Honestly the fact of being tortured is wrong. There should have been a world wide law against it back then and today. This conflict reduced the population of the Jewish people to just two percent of the world from hundreds of millions of people just because of one man. This conflict was the reason there were only a select group of people that lived to tell their story. This conflict is the conflict that drove Maus to be what it was.
Symbolic Image:
The food chain is the perfect symbol for this book because it shows who is on top and who is on the bottom. In this book the cats (Nazis) are on top while the mice (Jews) are on the bottom. The ones that are on the bottom tend to be the ones that get picked on and in this book the mice get picked on to an extreme. They get kicked and even little kids get basically tortured: A cat (Nazi) hit a little mouse (Jewish child) against a wall by holding him by his legs and swinging him at the wall. That is why the food chain is the perfect symbol.
Existing Works:
This book reminds me of The Diary of Anne Frank because they were both about the Holocaust. Many of the same things that happened to Vladek and his family happened to Anne and her family. One of the major things that happened to every one in the Holocaust was that they hid in many places – Attics, barns, basements, and hidden rooms. They would take the captured people by train to the camps. They would starve them and give them numbers that were tattooed on their forearm. This book also reminded me of the film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas because The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was about the Holocaust as well as Maus. They both had numbers and were both in camps. This book also reminds me of Marvels because they are both graphic novels. Marvels was very similar to Maus because they were both graphic novels but there were many differences: Marvels was illustrated in color while Maus was in black and white. Marvels used like “CRACK” to describe what was happening. One instance was when the girl fell of the bridge and her neck broke and it said “CRACK” in a gargantuan font; Maus used this once. Maus also reminds me of a Television show called How I Met your Mother because the story is told through flashbacks and goes back into the future to see what their current peoples reaction was.
o Gestapo – they were the secret German police during the Holocaust.
o Nitrostat – heavy yellow liquid that is oily and explosive and obtained by nitrogen glycerol
o Governess – a woman who is hired to raise a child (nanny)
o Acquaintances – people who you are friendly with but not close friends
o Tuchus – Yiddish for butt
Quarter 2 Animal Farm independent reading project By George Orwell Synopsis: In the novella, Animal Farm, by George Orwell, farm animals begin to do tasks that are meant for humans. In the beginning they are living under the control of Mr. Jones, a farmer, but eventually conquer the land once owned by the farmer. They then establish a government that is run under the leading of Napoleon. This is because Old Major, a prized hog, gave a long speech about how the animals should take over the farm and his dram of the animals living in peace. They set rules about who their allies should be and who are their enemies. They learn a song called the “Beasts of England”. After Old Major dies, the animals begin to plan for the takeover. The pigs did most of this. Moses told all of the animals about “Sugarcandy Mountain”. This was the place animals went when they died. The animals took over the farm and changed the name from Manor Farm to Animal Farm. Snowball, another pig, reduces the seven commandments to just “four legs good, two legs bad” (wings count as legs). The animals are about to get attacked by Mr. Jones and a few other farmers, but they counterattack. The animals win the battle and Snowball and Boxer win medals. Boxer accidently killed a man and grieves because he did not want to take a life. The animals find Mr. Jones’ gun and decide to fire it twice a year; on October 12th (anniversary of the battle of the cowshed) and on a midsummer’s day (anniversary of the rebellion). Mollie (the cow who does not work at all) becomes a burden on the farm and disappears. She got lured away by a farmer with sugar. During the winter months the meeting are held in the big barn. Snowball studies Mr. Jones’ books and makes an idea to construct a windmill. He talks about how beneficial it could be for the farm. Then, the dogs attack and chase snowball off of the farm. Napoleon announces that all decisions will fall unto the pigs and meeting will be held for ceremonial purposes only. The animals have to work harder and harder because they are told to by Napoleon and they believe that it is for their own good. They begin breaking rocks for the construction of the windmill. Napoleon appoints Mr. Whymper the trading specialist of Animal Farm. He is a human. There is a rumor that the pigs are sleeping in beds. A Huge storm comes over the farm and destroys the windmill. Napoleon orders that they begin rebuilding. They struggle to build the windmill in the harshness of winter. They begin to run out of food. Snowball is blamed for sabotaging the animal’s work. Napoleon claims he can detect Snowball’s presence everywhere. Napoleon forces some animals to confess to helping Snowball. His dogs then tear out each of the confessor’s throats. Squealer says “Beasts of England” no longer applies to them. Commandments continue to be changed. The pigs convince the animals to hate Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Fredrick on and off and the one that is being hated is considered to be hiding Snowball. More commandments are being changed and the animals blame their memories for this as well as the other changes in commandments. Mr. Fredrick attacks the Farm with many armed men and destroyed the windmill before the animals could put it to use. Many animals were killed and boxer sustains a bad injury. Boxer doesn’t give up work for even a day. Animal Farm’s food supply is diminished again and the rations are depleted except for the pigs and dogs. The government is now declared a republic. Boxer collapses and Napoleon orders humans care him on. The cart that takes him away says glue factory. Squealer announces that boxer is dead. The pigs buy another barrel of whisky and all of the animals suspect mischievous acts from the pigs. After a few years, the windmill is finished. Many animals aged and died. Some animals remember the days before the rebellion. The pigs begin walking upright and wearing cloths and doing many things that were originally against the law. They had whips! Napoleon talks with neighboring farmers. He renames the farm “the Manor Farm”. He believes it is the correct and original name.
Characters: Napoleon – He is a dictator. He is the self-proclaimed leader of Animal Farm. He makes the decision with everything. He breaks all of the 7 commandments. His is the Joseph Stalin of Animal Farm.
Boxer – He is a horse. He is the hardest working animal on the farm. He worked himself to death. He was the strongest animal the farm had ever seen.
Old Major – He is a prized hog. Even though he was old around for the first two or three chapters, he is the reason for the rebellion. His dream is the reason the whole thing happened.
Description of essential conflict: The essential conflict was the rebellion and the windmill. The animals did not want to be ruled by people any longer and the windmill was the reason the story lasted for as long as it did. The windmill got destroyed twice and it was blamed on Snowball twice. It was the animal’s prime point of concentration. This is what they wanted to finish but it kept getting destroyed.
Quotes: “Four legs good, two legs bad”
“At this there was a terrible baying sound outside, and nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball, who only sprang from his place just in time to escape their snapping jaws.”
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
“If you have your lower animals to contend with,” he said, “we have our lower classes!”
“The side of the truck said glue factory”
Explanation of main theme: This book was written to describe what the rule of Joseph Stalin was like. How he was a dictator and did not think the laws applied to him. Napoleon played the role of Joseph Stalin (that is kind of ironic). It was geared to show younger people what the rule ofo Joseph Stalin was like. And then there was what the animals actually went by and that was persistence. They continued to try to create something that was completely unnecessary for a farm to run (a windmill). Although the way the work was laid out changed, they stayed persistent. This windmill was the source of the theme though. Without the windmill, the animals would never have tried to build it and therefore never been persistent. The windmill was the base of the story.
Quarter 1
My Book:
The Title of the book is Maus: Art Spiegelman Wrote the story. The reasons I Chose this particular book was because I read it last year and actually liked even though it was assigned. It was an easy read and I figured why not read something that I have read before and liked quite a bit.
Maus' genres:
This book fits into the genres of Graphic Novel, Biography, and Young Adult. It fits into the graphic novel genre because it was basically a very long comic book and that is what it was. There were drawings with captions all over the entire book. This gave it the position of being in the category of graphic novel. This book fits into the category of young adult as well as graphic novel. This is because most young adults learn about the holocaust around that time in their life and most teachers assign this to their students to learn about graphic novels at this time in their life. Another reason it fits into young adult is because it is pretty much a longer version of a comic book and most young adults do not mind reading comic books. This is a biography because Spiegelman was writing his fathers story of how he lived through the Holocaust. His father lived through camps and hiding from the Nazis for years. He told us about the fact that his father would dress and wear religious apparel of different religions to blend and not get caught by Nazis. He wrote about his fathers relationships and even put things in the book that his father told him not to. These are the genres of Maus.
Summary of plot:
The plot was Spiegelman’s father surviving the Holocaust. His father’s story was the book and whatever happened to his father was in the book. It Started with them living in a small hidden room underneath a chest nailed to the ground. And they move around hoping not to get caught and had them wearing masks of other animals to represent them blending in by wearing other religions apparel. His relationships were in here and his wife. He eventually was in a camp but escaped; this was the climax of the story. He had a child who eventually would write this book. Throughout the book they kept coming back to present time and talked about what they said together while his father was telling the story.
Character discussion:
There are three characters that will be talked about; Vladek, Anja, Mala. Vladek is the main character that the story revolves around. This is what he did to survive the Holocaust. Vladek was the father of Art and was the husband of Anja until she committed suicide, which is when he later married Mala. All three of these characters were illustrated as mice because in the book mice were the representatives for Jewish people; other animals represented different people. Cats were the Nazis and pigs were polish but there were more animals in the story.
Vladek being the central character in this story was involved in everything. He was married twice, had two kids, and took care of everyone of them. His first wife was Anja who was the mother (Vladek was the father) of Art and Richieu. Vladek actually gave up Richieu to hide him for his own safety. “We had to give Richieu to hide a year later.” Richieu died leaving Vladek in charge of Art when Anja committed Suicide. Vladek was always looking for a place to stay and hide for his family. They stayed in a barn and in a tiny room with several people in it. Vladek would even walk around with a “pig mask” (pg. 64) on to make himself look polish instead of Jewish. His family was the most important thing to him. He would then get captured and put in a camp where he would have to work and live in a tent where it snowed all of the time (pg. 61). He got captured and put there after he went into the army
Anja was Vladek’s first wife and was the mother of Richieu and Art. Richieu ended up dying and Anja killed herself.
Mala was Vladek’s second wife. He fought with her many times. One time in the book they fought over something completely pointless. This shows that Vladek liked Anja much more than Mala.
The Nazi soldiers played such a huge role in this book; there wouldn’t have been any of this without them. They started just by being there and making every Jewish person be careful of where they go what they do and what they look like. They were the ones that raided Vladek’s house while they were hiding under the chest with the fake bottom, which led to a hidden room. They were the ones that took Vladek to the camp. On page 49 they said, “Give me your gun.” This was the beginning of his stay in a camp. They would gas people just because they were mice. (Jews or other cultures) They are the people that tortured and did everything to the Jewish people and many other cultures. These people would just be following commands to. It was not like they wanted to or would have done those things to people if they were not part of the Nazi army. Even though they just did these things on command they still played the role of the bad guy. Everybody hates the bad guy.
Big Ideas:
The main idea of this book is the Holocaust and what people had to go through to survive the Holocaust. It showed what people did to hide and live. They would dress like other people or in the book they would wear masks of other animals that represented people during the Holocaust. Pigs being Polish. Another big idea was that there was an obvious hierarchy to the way Spiegleman presented the animals. Cats obviously being the highest of the hierarchy. The cats were the Nazis while the mice were the Jewish people. The Mice were the bottoms with the common idea that cats chase mice. Frogs and pigs were in the middle with a central location in the hierarchy. Dogs were also in the middle. Another idea was that certain things meant certainly that there would be bad things to come. A Swastika was one of those things. On page 125 the paths that Vladek and his friend were walking on formed a Swastika. This was built into the book and took someone pointing it out to me to see it. Another time when the Swastika was in the book was when the train was taking Vladek in to the camp and it was on a very large flag right outside of the train.
Major Conflict:
The Major conflict in this book was the Holocaust. Without the Holocaust this book would not have been written. The whole conflict with this concept was the fact that Jews and other cultures and races were murdered for no apparent reason. Nazis would just kill them. During the Holocaust people would get captured (Vladek was one of those people) during war and put into camps where they wouldn’t be fed and they would be worked to the point where they died and if they did not die they would be killed. The fact that people would do things like that reflects badly on them and really started this whole thing. Without them there would not be a conflict. If it was just Hitler there would not have been a holocaust and he probably would have ended up in jail, which would have changed the course of time. There would be more Jewish people across the world today and the world would be even more over populated. But back to the actual situations of the holocaust. People were beaten and tortured and starved in many more ways than people today could imagine. Honestly the fact of being tortured is wrong. There should have been a world wide law against it back then and today. This conflict reduced the population of the Jewish people to just two percent of the world from hundreds of millions of people just because of one man. This conflict was the reason there were only a select group of people that lived to tell their story. This conflict is the conflict that drove Maus to be what it was.
Symbolic Image:
The food chain is the perfect symbol for this book because it shows who is on top and who is on the bottom. In this book the cats (Nazis) are on top while the mice (Jews) are on the bottom. The ones that are on the bottom tend to be the ones that get picked on and in this book the mice get picked on to an extreme. They get kicked and even little kids get basically tortured: A cat (Nazi) hit a little mouse (Jewish child) against a wall by holding him by his legs and swinging him at the wall. That is why the food chain is the perfect symbol.
Existing Works:
This book reminds me of The Diary of Anne Frank because they were both about the Holocaust. Many of the same things that happened to Vladek and his family happened to Anne and her family. One of the major things that happened to every one in the Holocaust was that they hid in many places – Attics, barns, basements, and hidden rooms. They would take the captured people by train to the camps. They would starve them and give them numbers that were tattooed on their forearm. This book also reminded me of the film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas because The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was about the Holocaust as well as Maus. They both had numbers and were both in camps. This book also reminds me of Marvels because they are both graphic novels. Marvels was very similar to Maus because they were both graphic novels but there were many differences: Marvels was illustrated in color while Maus was in black and white. Marvels used like “CRACK” to describe what was happening. One instance was when the girl fell of the bridge and her neck broke and it said “CRACK” in a gargantuan font; Maus used this once. Maus also reminds me of a Television show called How I Met your Mother because the story is told through flashbacks and goes back into the future to see what their current peoples reaction was.
Good Reads Link:
Good reads reviewFive Words:
o Gestapo – they were the secret German police during the Holocaust.
o Nitrostat – heavy yellow liquid that is oily and explosive and obtained by nitrogen glycerol
o Governess – a woman who is hired to raise a child (nanny)
o Acquaintances – people who you are friendly with but not close friends
o Tuchus – Yiddish for butt
Quarter 2
Animal Farm independent reading project
By George Orwell
Synopsis:
In the novella, Animal Farm, by George Orwell, farm animals begin to do tasks that are meant for humans. In the beginning they are living under the control of Mr. Jones, a farmer, but eventually conquer the land once owned by the farmer. They then establish a government that is run under the leading of Napoleon. This is because Old Major, a prized hog, gave a long speech about how the animals should take over the farm and his dram of the animals living in peace. They set rules about who their allies should be and who are their enemies. They learn a song called the “Beasts of England”. After Old Major dies, the animals begin to plan for the takeover. The pigs did most of this. Moses told all of the animals about “Sugarcandy Mountain”. This was the place animals went when they died. The animals took over the farm and changed the name from Manor Farm to Animal Farm. Snowball, another pig, reduces the seven commandments to just “four legs good, two legs bad” (wings count as legs). The animals are about to get attacked by Mr. Jones and a few other farmers, but they counterattack. The animals win the battle and Snowball and Boxer win medals. Boxer accidently killed a man and grieves because he did not want to take a life. The animals find Mr. Jones’ gun and decide to fire it twice a year; on October 12th (anniversary of the battle of the cowshed) and on a midsummer’s day (anniversary of the rebellion). Mollie (the cow who does not work at all) becomes a burden on the farm and disappears. She got lured away by a farmer with sugar. During the winter months the meeting are held in the big barn. Snowball studies Mr. Jones’ books and makes an idea to construct a windmill. He talks about how beneficial it could be for the farm. Then, the dogs attack and chase snowball off of the farm. Napoleon announces that all decisions will fall unto the pigs and meeting will be held for ceremonial purposes only. The animals have to work harder and harder because they are told to by Napoleon and they believe that it is for their own good. They begin breaking rocks for the construction of the windmill. Napoleon appoints Mr. Whymper the trading specialist of Animal Farm. He is a human. There is a rumor that the pigs are sleeping in beds. A Huge storm comes over the farm and destroys the windmill. Napoleon orders that they begin rebuilding. They struggle to build the windmill in the harshness of winter. They begin to run out of food. Snowball is blamed for sabotaging the animal’s work. Napoleon claims he can detect Snowball’s presence everywhere. Napoleon forces some animals to confess to helping Snowball. His dogs then tear out each of the confessor’s throats. Squealer says “Beasts of England” no longer applies to them. Commandments continue to be changed. The pigs convince the animals to hate Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Fredrick on and off and the one that is being hated is considered to be hiding Snowball. More commandments are being changed and the animals blame their memories for this as well as the other changes in commandments. Mr. Fredrick attacks the Farm with many armed men and destroyed the windmill before the animals could put it to use. Many animals were killed and boxer sustains a bad injury. Boxer doesn’t give up work for even a day. Animal Farm’s food supply is diminished again and the rations are depleted except for the pigs and dogs. The government is now declared a republic. Boxer collapses and Napoleon orders humans care him on. The cart that takes him away says glue factory. Squealer announces that boxer is dead. The pigs buy another barrel of whisky and all of the animals suspect mischievous acts from the pigs. After a few years, the windmill is finished. Many animals aged and died. Some animals remember the days before the rebellion. The pigs begin walking upright and wearing cloths and doing many things that were originally against the law. They had whips! Napoleon talks with neighboring farmers. He renames the farm “the Manor Farm”. He believes it is the correct and original name.
Characters:
Napoleon – He is a dictator. He is the self-proclaimed leader of Animal Farm. He makes the decision with everything. He breaks all of the 7 commandments. His is the Joseph Stalin of Animal Farm.
Boxer – He is a horse. He is the hardest working animal on the farm. He worked himself to death. He was the strongest animal the farm had ever seen.
Old Major – He is a prized hog. Even though he was old around for the first two or three chapters, he is the reason for the rebellion. His dream is the reason the whole thing happened.
Description of essential conflict:
The essential conflict was the rebellion and the windmill. The animals did not want to be ruled by people any longer and the windmill was the reason the story lasted for as long as it did. The windmill got destroyed twice and it was blamed on Snowball twice. It was the animal’s prime point of concentration. This is what they wanted to finish but it kept getting destroyed.
Quotes:
“Four legs good, two legs bad”
“At this there was a terrible baying sound outside, and nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball, who only sprang from his place just in time to escape their snapping jaws.”
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
“If you have your lower animals to contend with,” he said, “we have our lower classes!”
“The side of the truck said glue factory”
Explanation of main theme:
This book was written to describe what the rule of Joseph Stalin was like. How he was a dictator and did not think the laws applied to him. Napoleon played the role of Joseph Stalin (that is kind of ironic). It was geared to show younger people what the rule ofo Joseph Stalin was like. And then there was what the animals actually went by and that was persistence. They continued to try to create something that was completely unnecessary for a farm to run (a windmill). Although the way the work was laid out changed, they stayed persistent. This windmill was the source of the theme though. Without the windmill, the animals would never have tried to build it and therefore never been persistent. The windmill was the base of the story.
Goodreads review:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/481119251
Audio track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BAElBcNPrs
Video commentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N00oZdyVwgs